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NHRA Pontiac History- Part II
The Mickey Thompson Legend
January, 2007

Bruce Fulper, Rock and Roll Engineering

It’s only fitting that I begin the second installment of NHRA history with Pontiacs on the day Mickey and Trudy Thompson’s murderer was finally found guilty after eighteen years of court battles. When I moved to California in 1985, one of my goals was to meet Mickey Thompson. I had only been in town for a few months when he and his wife were killed. Man, was that a sad day. I guess I could get all philosophical But there’s no future in it. Let’s get back to the good ol’ days.

My buddy and Pontiac racing legend, Jess Tyree, knew M/T very well. And, over the years when Jess was running one of my power plants in his ‘63 Tempest match racer ,I got to hear a lot of M/T stories. One of my favorite stories that comes to mind is when Jess met a little league umpire that was working as a pressman for the L.A Times who had a hot ’40 Ford.

Jess had been street racing a hopped up six cylinder ‘37 Chevy, and according to him that little Stovebolt was a butt kicker. The news about this flyin’ hotrod from Buena Park, California reached all of the way to L.A. (you guessed it, to “little league umpire that was working as a pressman”), and soon M/T planned a little hunting expedition. We’re talking 1950 or ‘51 as Jess recalls.

The usual excitement was really poppin’ at the favorite hot spot in Buena Park that Friday night. That spot was the local skating rink. Remember, the drive-in fast food spots were a few years off and the skate rink was the easiest social hang out to pick up races.

At that time Buena Park had no police department. It was a small town and you could race anywhere, anytime. (What a country.) Street racing had not yet become the evil menace of every agenda hunting public official.

Mickey and his new gal Judy rolled into B.P. that night with a hot flat head V-8 in a cool ‘40 Ford. He’d been hoping up those Ford flat heads for a few years and I bet that competitive spirit in him made it easy to think this six cylinder Chevy would be easy pickins’. A six against an eight? No way. Years later Judy Thompson would still remember driving to race Jess that night.

Jess beat M/T that night, and after the usual post race bull session, Mickey said he was going home to work on the flat head and said he wanted to race Jess the following weekend. Jess said “sure!” There was one problem however. Jess hadn’t won by much and he was actually worried about next week. How could he wring more power out of that Blue Flame six.

The first drag strip in America, hell, probably the world, was Santa Ana drag strip run by the late C.J. “Pappy” Hart. It opened in 1950, and Jess had been running there since day one. One of the guys Jess met there ran a stripped down roadster with a full tilt Wayne headed Potvin cammed Chevy six. It was the hottest six at the track. Well, during the week Jess decided to stop by this guy’s house to see if he could give him some tune-up ideas. When Jess got there he found the guy busy on a another car to put his engine into. When Jess told him about this guy he barely beat, his pal, who’s name he since forgotten, said, “why don’t ya put the Wayne engine in there?” That reply took a billionth of a second.

The next Friday night that hot ‘40 Ford rolled into the parking lot sounding a little meaner. Mickey asked Jess if he had been working on his engine. And with a clear (street racers) conscience Jess said “No.” I mean, after all, he hadn’t been working on his engine!

The streets of Buena Park and countless spectators were witness to the ass whippin’ that 12-port Wayne six cylinder put on Mickey that night. Back in the parking lot Mickey insisted on seeing Jess’s engine, and when he popped the hood he simply told Mick, “I didn’t work on MY engine!” It was just another street racer fake out that’s been going on since race one back in 1910, 1905? who knows. Mickey discovered this Tyree kid was a clever one, and thus started a life long friendship that lasted until March 16th, 1988. Mickey had called Jess one week before the murders to see if he wanted to make a guest appearance with him at a stadium race. That was their last conversation.

We’ll get Jess to come up with some more stories. Believe me, he’s got a zillion of ‘em. Like how he met Doug Cook and Tim Woods of Stone Woods and Cook fame. Doug also had a hot ‘37 Chevy and Tim Woods had a new four-door Olds with a brand new Caddy engine he installed. The original Southern California sleepers were on the hunt.

I previously mentioned I’d share a picture of a M/T rail I bet you’ve never seen before. Well here it is. June 5th, 1960 Mickey was knocking off near 170 mph nitro burning runs long before Arnie Beswick dreamed of turning thirteens in a Stocker. Included below is the report of this race where Mickey, of course, was the winner.

From Drag News Volume 6– #11
June 11, 1960

It has been said that “Dollar for Dollar you can’t beat a Pontiac.” Of course it was also a help to have a chain driven 6:71 GMC blower, 414 cubic inches, (the little engine,) an Iskenderian cam, Drag Master chassis, and Judy Thompson’s husband Mickey to do all of the driving, along with Darrel Droke and Mel Chastain for pit crew. Then indeed, as Jim McLennen found out, dollars and Pontiacs are hard to beat.

The greenback brothers were grudging for one thousand after-taxes Yankee dollars. Originally scheduled for one run, later it was decided to make it two out of three. The first run started with Thompson firing first and holding a constant high idle rate to warm up the cold engine. McLennen had the Weber equipped Chevy running up and down the scale like always. Off the line Thompson got a slight roll and a little bog.
McLennen came off the line like a goose that had been peopled.

The initial advantage was the smiling Irishman’s with Thompson charging at the end. The Champion entry got there first by the merest breadth of a wheel. The ET was a smokey 8.88 with a speed of 158.98.

The second run had about the same firing procedures except that Judy had instructed Mickey to get off the line and get that Chevy. Mickey has never been noted for sleeping at the line and this time he got up real early with a false start. Starter Andy Brizio just laughed and they lined back up with John Zucca doing the backward Ho bit. Both cars came out even and well. Thompson got the initial advantage and held it all of the way, while McLennen was slowly getting out of the gate. At the far end it was Thompson again by the merest of wheel width. The times this run were 9.01 and 169.87 mph.

This meant the next run was worth the gold. On the run down for the fire up there occurred something that makes you think that maybe there’s hope for drag racing’s future. The crowd gave both racers a standing round of applause.

Between races Thompson put on the front half of the body shell and again put on Norm Rapps sensible padded leather face mask. Andy Brizio again got off one of his flawless starts under pressure and again the Pontiac gulped for air, and the race pattern from the second round was repeated. The extra seventy inches in the Pontiac coupled with the perfect handling gave Thompson the initial advantage. Both machines functioned perfectly. At the end McLennen was starting to catch up, but the finish line got there first.

At the end of the strip after the drag chutes had done their job, both racers got out, shook hands, and congratulated each other with an air of camaraderie that was genuine and sincere. The last word was Thompson’s, “Boy” he exploded in real amazement. “that little Chevy really goes!”

More to come - and sooner too!

Safe travels and great racing to all.

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